So Real List. How to Create a Gaming Checklist

Guest Player in “So List”

The “So List” blog is a big fan of checklists. But the whole point is that checklists don’t exist on their own. People craft them and use them for all kinds of different purposes. It’s even in their definition in the dedicated blog post. The current blog post will show that they can even help you with such a seemingly opposite and fun area as video gaming!

I love gaming, but unfortunately, I don’t play. However, this won’t harm us, as today we have a guest! Meet Seth_The_Gremlin, a passionate gamer who loves gaming and creating guides for games. These guides are created in the form of a gaming checklist.

If you are interested in gaming checklists, feel free to share your own experiences and tell how you use them.

Why Do Gamers Want Gaming Checklists?

There are different styles of gaming. Some gamers spend hours investigating every piece of the gaming area, trying to find all the joy left by game creators. I am this type of gamer. I want to leave a location only knowing that it is fully complete, and I didn’t miss anything.

When you have plenty of time in your younger years, it’s totally fine to put many hours into research. Unfortunately, there is usually not much time for your favorite games in adulthood. Does this mean you can no longer feel the pleasure of complete exploration? Absolutely not, and this is where checklists come into play.

Does this mean that it makes no sense to use checklists when you have enough time? No, it’s worth using them here as well. Even with a thorough approach, you can miss some stuff in the frequently large open worlds of modern games. This is where checklists again provide great guidance.

How Do Gamers Search for Gaming Checklists?

As this blog post is written from the perspective of a checklist creator, it’s definitely worth knowing how to distribute your guides. Most of the time, people won’t generally go to search for something like “gaming checklist”. No one needs a general one. The “GTA V” fan looks for a checklist in one of the game communities across the web.

As Seth says:

Most people typically check reddit or game forums on steam or other sites for checklists and guides

So find your community and post there. Every big game community I checked on Reddit or Steam did have something to show for people looking for a checklist.

I guess you already have an account there. Or it’s easy and free to create one.

What I especially like about checklists is that they are suitable for any game on any device. Be it a PC or console, checklists are applicable everywhere.

How Does Seth Craft High-Quality Gaming Checklists?

When we discovered that gamers are huge checklist fans, it’s time to gain the knowledge of how to craft one or a bunch of them. Usually, there is a lot of information going on in a game, and coming up with a simple list won’t provide a good “user experience”.

Seth shared with me two checklists; let’s investigate them and find the good parts that you can utilize in yours:

• Persona 4 Golden,
• Dragon Age: Origins.

We can see they were created in a Google Sheet format. Both are very well-structured guides. They are full of pictures and even have a consistent design.

I identify that there is even a framework for describing a game via a sheet of checklists. Every sheet consists of the “Welcome” page, “Index”, and “Changelog”.

The “Welcome” page is an instruction for a guide. Seth provides information there on how to use the guide in the most effective way. The page meets the player with an important note stating the necessity to copy the document. This statement makes a lot of sense:

The purpose of this guide is to provide you with a checklist you can edit to keep track of your progress. In order to do so, you need to create a local copy in your Google Drive library.

There are some lists on the web full of information, but they don’t allow tracking of progress. This might lead to confusion when you come back after a month of not playing.

The “Index” page is a table of contents. In some sense, it shows you a game broken down into the essential pieces — those you need to focus on to get the full experience.

Personally, I admire the latest part of this framework, the “Changelog” page. It means that the checklist is enhanced over time, and this is another part of the “So List’s” soul.

All other pages describe important aspects of the game. Nowadays, many games have a built-in system of achievements, and this is a common part for both mentioned games.

At the same time, from the checklists’ perspective, “Persona 4 Golden” and “Dragon Age: Origins” are very different games.

Some sheets’ pages are done in the form of checklists, while others look like a simple description. What is the logic behind this? If the things are worth collecting or completing, meet the checklist. Otherwise, here is a table with information. There is even sometimes an additional legend required to describe the complexity of the gaming process.

How does Seth know when to stop? Here is the quote:

I typically get together what I would prefer a checklist first. Achievements, where and how to get gear and equipment, etc. Or looking at what people on reddit are for so I can add it. I never know for sure when it's ready. I post them when I have everything that I can add that I would like there and usually add more stuff if someone asks

So it’s a matter of personal feeling and the feedback received from the community.

Seth's Method to Create the High-Quality Checklist Distilled

Here is the method written in short actionable steps:

1. Keep the user of your checklist in mind.
2. Discover the live game community.
3. Add a short guide on how to use the checklist.
4. Add an index to show the contents of the checklist and ease navigation.
5. Add a changelog to document further improvements.
6. Break the game down into crucial parts. Start with achievements, and then follow your experience, the game’s hints and community interest.
7. Publish your checklist.
8. Gather community feedback and use it to enhance your checklist.

Checklists and Games Are Friends No Matter What

Be it a PC or a console. Be it Xbox Series X, Sony PlayStation 5, Nintendo Wii, RCA Studio II, Atari 2600, or Milton Bradley Microvision, any game on them can have a checklist. If you want to create it, discover a community where you can share it and do your best to come up with useful guidance.

Moreover, Seth says that the already existing checklists are not an obstacle. When the already existing ones are overwhelming or hard to understand, it’s always possible to make a better version.

Many thanks to Seth for being the guest of the “So List” blog for this post! I invite you to buy Seth a coffee, follow on YouTube, or on Twitch.

Didn’t you expect that checklists and games are such big friends? I also didn’t. However, this makes perfect sense to subscribe to the “So List” blog to uncover even more knowledge and tips about these subtle yet powerful tools. Are you already familiar with them? I doubt it — there are too many secrets they hold.